Water has been on the minds of everyone lately. Until just last week, our rain barrel was full almost every day, and the children loved playing not just in the rain, but afterward with the water stored by our rain barrel. Questions abounded. Where does rain comes from? Why do some clouds not rain? How does the rain barrel fill up? Where does the water go? Now that it’s not raining, the rain barrel is empty. Yet, questions still abound.
The rain barrel arrived in it’s new location over Spring Break, but it took a few weeks for the children to catch on that they could play in the trench that carries overflow water to our rain garden. They discovered that when they turn on the spigot the flow down the trench is a “river.” Truth be told, it is pretty much a scale model of an actual river: it has slow parts and fast parts, it has a rapids, a lake and a confluence. Confusingly, however, our “river” disappears into the rain garden – where it quickly soaks into the ground. (This is a bit of a mystery to the children – explanations of groundwater flow into Waller Creek don’t seem to cut it.)
The discussions of water have had affects on what’s in the classroom, too. The children were curious about the new “sandpaper” boards that were on the shelf. Not surprisingly, it was about water and they were quite intrigued! These landform cards are in “opposites”—we learned about lakes and islands, straits and isthmus (a very funny word), and peninsula and bay. We found examples of these on our maps and globes. On the surface, geography lessons might seem to be a bit much for 4- and 5-year olds. But not surprisingly given the inquiries of late, and the kids’ own observations of water in their environment, they just soaked it all up.
